Why is community service not used more?

petergfiffin

Why is it in this country we don't make more use of community service? Surely we could have people who are convicted of minor offences carrying out work like picking up litter at the side of the road, cleaning grafitti etc as they do in other countries? I don't mean forced labour but giving people the choice of doing this kind of work instead of going to prison, particularly where people can't afford to pay fines or claim a spell in prison would put too much of a strain on their family. As I see it the cost to the state would be a lot lower as you don't have to lock them up, there is a positive benefit to the community and we free up spaces in prisons which, let's be honest, could be put to much better benefit.

This all seems way too simple so I'm sure there must be some legal reason as to why this hasn't been used more often, if so I'd love to know what it is!!

Tom Young

We can and do. http://www.irishstatutebook.ie:80/1983/en/act/pub/0023/index.html